Dr. Jonny Bowden

Category: Anti-Aging

Postmenopausal Hormone Replacement Reduces Mortality Risk?
The following is a guest article by Raymond Ishman, MD, CEO and Chief Medical Officer of Cenegenics, Philadelphia. Cenegenics is one of the leading anti-aging clinics in the United States.

The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study was prematurely stopped in 2002 due to a reported increase in the incidence of breast cancer in women in the hormone replacement arm of the study. As a result, thousands of women have stopped, or been taken off their hormones unnecessarily. This has lead to needless confusion, suffering and fear, to the point of hysteria in some, regarding the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Since then, many of the main findings of this study have been debunked, albeit with much less media attention.

Multiple studies have challenged the conclusions of WHI. One such study was published in the British Medical Journal and released October 9, 2012. The data came from the Danish Osteoporosis Prevention Study where recently postmenopausal women, ages 45- 58, were treated with or without HRT for 10 years. The original study was actually started in the early 1990s. Hormones were stopped at 10 years when the results of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study were released in 2002, with follow up carried out until 2008. In the current report, the same data was analyzed for cardiovascular outcomes, cancer and overall mortality.

In the Danish study, women who previously had a hysterectomy were given oral bioidentical estradiol. (Topical is now the preferred route) Women who still had a uterus were given a combination of oral estradiol and a synthetic progestin. (Bioidentical progesterone is now the preferred “progestin”)

Conclusions of the analysis were that “After 10 years of randomized treatment, women receiving hormone replacement therapy early after menopause had a significantly reduced risk of mortality, heart failure, or myocardial infarction (heart attack), without any apparent increase in risk of cancer, venous thromboembolism (blood clots), or stroke.” The mortality risk reduction was about 40%! They went on to state that “early initiation and prolonged hormone replacement therapy did not result in an increased risk of breast cancer or stroke.”

There was no significant difference in the incidence of breast cancer between those who took hormones and those who did not. In fact, women who started hormone therapy prior to age 50 had a significant decrease in the incidence of breast cancer.

What does this study tell us?
- Hormone therapy started in recently menopausal women and continued for a prolonged duration does not increase mortality, stroke, heart failure, or heart attacks.
- The rate of breast cancer or other cancers was not increased in this study.
How can this be reconciled with the findings of the Women’s Health Initiative?
- The Women’s Health Initiative used Premarin (derived from pregnant mare’s urine) and medroxyprogesterone (a synthetic progestin that has been found to increase the risk of breast cancer), not bioidentical hormones.
- In WHI, the average age of the participants was 64, with many well into their 70s, many of whom were smokers and had other cardiovascular risk factors. These women had never been on hormones prior to the study.
- One post hoc analysis of WHI that only looked at women younger than 60, also found a reduction in heart disease and death, although not statistically significant.
Take home message:
- “HRT” can be safe and effective when done properly.
- Patient selection is important – generally, healthy women within 10 years of menopause at the start of hormone replacement are the best candidates. However,
  this does not preclude the use of hormones in older healthy women.
- When hormones are started early after menopause, there appears to be a reduction in mortality due to cardiovascular disease.
- There was no increase in breast cancer even with prolonged use in this group of patients.
Commentary:
- Most prior studies that showed no benefit or an increased risk of cancer, heart disease or blood clots, refer to “HRT” which is a general term, not indicating which hormones were used. Most used a Premarin (horse urine estrogen) equivalent and a synthetic progestin, most commonly medroxyprogesterone. The synthetic progestin component appears to be what is mainly responsible for the increase in breast cancer risk seen in some prior studies.
- Studies using bioidentical progesterone have not shown the increased cancer risk with some studies showing a decreased risk.
- Most prior studies did not specifically look at recently postmenopausal women.
- The results of this study may even have been more favorable if topical (instead of oral) estradiol and bioidentical progesterone (instead of a synthetic progestin) had been used.
While some clinicians would consider it premature to recommend HRT for mortality reduction, it is increasingly clear that with appropriate patient selection, the use of bioidentical hormones given via the proper route of delivery, does not pose an increased risk of mortality or cancer, and may even decrease these risks.

Raymond Ishman, MD, is the CEO and Chief Medical Officer of Cenegenics, Philadelphia. Cenegenics is one of the leading anti-aging clinics in the United States.
December 3, 2012
The Two Worst Foods in the World
Ask 10 people to name the two worst movies ever made and you’ll probably get a lot of different answers. “Ishtar”? “Waterworld”? Hard to say.

Whether you’re picking movies, books, or politicians, there are so many candidates for awfulness that it’s hard to pick the top two.

But when it comes to food, the choice is easy.

French fries and soda.

Folks, if we took just those two “foods” out of our diet and nothing else, we’d be in a lot better shape than we are today. I’m not saying we’d all be cured of obesity, diabetes and heart disease and ready to compete in the Mr. or Ms. Olympia contest, but we’d be a heck of a lot better off than we are now, at least from the standpoint of health.

And here’s why.

Most foods have in them some things that are good for you and some things that are not so good. One food might be high in calories and contain a few grams of sugar, but it might also be high in lycopene and protein. So you wind up doing a quick little evaluation to decide whether to eat it. No problem.

But with soda and French fries, no such calculus is necessary. Quite simply, there’s nothing good for you in either of them.

Now with French Fries you might—repeat might—be tempted to make a case that it’s not the worst food in the world, and you’d have a point if only…
1. you were using real, fresh, Idaho potatoes and…
2. you were frying in real old fashioned lard (yes, lard) and…
3. you weren’t using any other ingredients or flavorings.
Then you could make a case that the potatoes aren’t all bad, and that the oil isn’t pro-inflammatory, and the resultant food isn’t filled with carcinogens and trans-fats.

But those are not the French fries most of us are eating.

Fast food French fries are potato-like “products”. They’re “seasoned” with flavorings, wheat, salt and sugar, all to make them “super-palatable” (i.e. addictive). They use low-grade frozen potatoes of unknown origin which are then fried in high omega-6 (and pro-inflammatory) vegetable oil, which is then reused time and time (for about a week) increasing the likelihood that trans fats and carcinogenic compounds will form during the frying and make it onto your potato-like product onto which you will now dump a ton of salt and consume in obscene supersized amounts.

Lovely.

And soda doesn’t have a single ingredient in it—unless you count water—that could possibly do a body any good. The diet ones are loaded with artificial sweeteners like aspartame (a reasonable case can be made that aspartame’s a neurotoxin), and filled with chemicals and colorings of unpronounceable name and unknown origin. And the regular sodas are loaded with sugar (usually high-fructose corn syrup), so-called “added sugars” which constitute, at this writing, at least a quarter of our total calories (seven percent come from beverages like soda!)

Does it need saying that the only people who deny that sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are mighty contributors to obesity and diabetes are the paid spokespeople from the enormously powerful sugar industry?

So yes, folks, for all the reasons we want to avoid high calorie, high glycemic foods of no nutritional value, we should drop French fries and sodas.

People like to point out how confusing nutrition advice is since so many experts seem to disagree vehemently with one another, and it can sometimes seem like we can’t agree on anything.

Perhaps, for many things in nutrition, that’s true.

But other than a paid spokesperson for the people who make them, you’ll be hard pressed to find any health professional who will defend French fries or sodas. Finally, there’s one thing we all agree on.

Drop those two “foods” from your diet, and the guardian angels of your health and well-being will be sending you a heartfelt and passionate “thank you!”
November 19, 2012
Scared to Death: How Stress Can Actually Kill You

Recently, a 30 year old meth addict named Ricky Lee Fowler was found guilty of starting what’s now known as the 2003 Old Fire in Southern California, a raging 90,000 acre blaze that resulted in the evacuation of 80,000 people and the destruction of nearly 1000 homes. Fowler was actually convicted of murder because five people died in the fire.

But here’s the thing: none of the five died because of fire.

All five died from heart attacks.

I mention this because it’s a great example of something cardiologist Stephen Sinatra and I discuss at length in our new book, “The Great Cholesterol Myth”. In that book, we talk about the four real causes of heart disease. One of those is what caused the five deaths in the Old Fire of 2003.

I’m talking about stress.

Voodoo Death

The notion that stress kills is hardly new. In the book we talk about something called “Voodo Death”, a concept that was explored in the 1920’s by the great American physiologist Walter Cannon. Voodo death is sudden, unexplained death arising from a voodoo curse. Here’s how Esther Sternberg, MD, put it in the American Journal of Public Health. (1)

“The dramatic suddenness of the illness following the threat, coupled with a lack of any apparent injury, exposure to toxins, or infection suggested to Cannon that merely the fear of death could, through physiological response mechanisms initiated by fear, precipitate death itself.”

Stress Kills, Cholesterol Doesn’t

The stress response is a complicated hormonal cascade of events that was designed to save your life in an emergency. But the devil is in the details. When that stress response is turned on 24/7—the way it is for a lot of us—nothing good happens. It’s like speeding down the 405 freeway in first gear. That first gear can be a lifesaver if you’re trying to get up a steep hill, but it’s death to your transmission if you’re driving 75.

Hormones are released—like cortisol and adrenaline—which cause blood pressure and heart rate to rise. Blood pounds against the artery walls, ultimately contributing to micro-injuries in the vascular system that soon become inflamed. These inflamed areas attract oxidized particles of LDL called LDL-b, not to mention inflammatory cytokines and all sorts of other metabolic riff-raff, the end result of which can be unstable plaque.

And the end result of that can be a heart attack.

In vulnerable people—such as the five people who died in the fire—the result can be pretty immediate. A cardiovascular system that’s already been weakened by a bad diet with too many trans fats and sugar, and by inflammation and oxidation in the vascular walls can easily be overwhelmed by a sudden overload of cortisol and adrenaline. This is probably why more heart attacks happen on Monday morning than on any other time or day.

Scared to Death

There’s even a developing field devoted to the effects of stress on the heart—it’s called stress cardiomyopathy, and even “healthy” people aren’t immune to it. “You have people in acute, sudden heart failure who were perfectly healthy an hour earlier”, cardiologist Ilan Wittstein, MD, told the Wall Street Journal. (2) Many of these patients survive—but many do not.

The chairman of the neurology department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston—Martin A. Samuels, MD—has collected literally hundreds of reports detailing how people died suddenly in scary situations. The reports include stories of children who died while on amusement rides, people who were victims of muggings (even though there was no physical attack or injury), and car accident victims whose injuries were negligible. The only thing they all have in common is that their hearts literally failed, not because of cholesterol, not even because of physical injury, but because they were unable to survive the aftermath of a massive overload of stress hormones.

So why are we chasing cholesterol and not paying attention to stress?

One reason might be money. There’s over 34 billion dollars a year made on cholesterol-lowering drugs. There’s not a whole lot of money to be made teaching people how to manage stress.

One of the biggest casualties of the war on cholesterol is that it’s caused us to take our focus off the things that really cause heart disease, things we can actually do something about cheaply, and things that don’t require prescription drugs.

Cholesterol is not your enemy.

But stress— except in small, infrequent doses—most definitely is.

November 19, 2012
Trick Question: How Do You Lower Cholesterol Naturally?

The other day, I received a request from a writer working on a story about how to lower cholesterol “naturally”. His questions are reprinted below, together with my reply.

Q. What are your thoughts on taking supplements as part of a cholesterol-lowering plan?

Q. Which ones do you like, and why?

Q. Are they safe? What are the risks?

Q. How do supplements fit in with traditional cholesterol-lowering methods like statin drugs, diet, and exercise?

Sounds reasonable, right?

Here’s my answer:

Dear Writer,

I’m delighted to help you with your story, which is clearly about using supplements and foods to lower cholesterol.

But here’s the problem…

I am a firm believer that lowering cholesterol is the least important thing you can do for heart health.

In fact, I am the author of a book called, “The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Cholesterol Won’t Prevent Heart Disease and the Statin-Free Plan that Will”.

So I wonder if I’m the right person to be interviewed about how to lower your cholesterol since I’m on a mission to correct the impression that lowering cholesterol matters a whit.

As I said on the Dr. Oz show, trying to prevent heart disease by lowering cholesterol is like trying to reduce calories by taking the lettuce off your whopper.

If you want to talk about supplements for heart health, I’m your man. If you want to talk about strategies to prevent heart disease, I’m your man.

But if you want to talk about how to lower your cholesterol, or what supplements to use as part of a “cholesterol-lowering plan”, I’m probably not your guy.

To me, that’s like asking a general in the armed forces, “What’s the best way to invade Portugal so we can stop Al-Qaeda?”

Al-Qaeda isn’t in Portugal. And cholesterol doesn’t cause heart disease.

Warmly,

Jonny Bowden

The writer replied: Let me rethink my slant on the article. I’ll get back to you on that.

Well, at least that’s some progress!

November 12, 2012
Even Your Fat Cells Need Sleep

Even Your Fat Cells Need Sleep, According to New Research

(courtesy of the National Sleep Foundation)

In a study that challenges the long-held notion that the primary function of sleep is to give rest to the brain, researchers have found that not getting enough shut-eye has a harmful impact on fat cells, reducing by 30 percent their ability to respond to insulin, a hormone that regulates energy.

Sleep deprivation has long been associated with impaired brain function, causing decreased alertness and reduced cognitive ability. The latest finding — published by University of Chicago Medicine researchers in the Oct. 16 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine — is the first description of a molecular mechanism directly connecting sleep loss to the disruption of energy regulation in humans, a process that can lead over time to weight gain, diabetes and other health problems. The study suggests that sleep’s role in energy metabolism is at least as important as it is in brain function.

“We found that fat cells need sleep to function properly,” said study author Matthew Brady, PhD, associate professor of medicine and vice-chair of the Committee on Molecular Metabolism and Nutrition at the University of Chicago.

Brady said body fat plays an important role in humans.

“Many people think of fat as a problem, but it serves a vital function,” he said. “Body fat, also known as adipose tissue, stores and releases energy. In storage mode, fat cells remove fatty acids and lipids from the circulation where they can damage other tissues. When fat cells cannot respond effectively to insulin, these lipids leach out into the circulation, leading to serious complications.”

Esra Tasali, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago and co-senior author, led the recruitment of six men and one woman, all young, lean and healthy. Each volunteer went through two study conditions, at least four weeks apart. In one, they spent 8.5 hours a night in bed for four consecutive nights. In the other, they spent 4.5 hours in bed for four nights. Food intake, strictly controlled, was identical under both study conditions.

On the morning after the fourth night following both the long and short sleep conditions, each volunteer took an intravenous glucose tolerance test, which measures total-body insulin sensitivity. The researchers performed a biopsy, removing abdominal fat cells from the area near each volunteer’s navel. Then they measured how these fat cells responded to insulin.

The researchers assessed insulin sensitivity at the molecular level by measuring the phosphorylation of a protein called Akt within fat cells. Akt phosphorylation is a crucial early chemical step in the cell’s response to insulin.

After four nights of short sleep, total-body insulin response decreased by an average of 16 percent. The insulin sensitivity of fat cells decreased by 30 percent. This reduction is comparable to the difference between cells from obese vs. lean participants or from people with diabetes versus non-diabetic controls.

They found that the sleep-deprived study participants had a decreased response to a range of doses of insulin. It took nearly three times as much insulin to provoke half of the maximum Akt response in volunteers who had been deprived of sleep.

“Sleeping four to five hours a night, at least on work days, is now a common behavior” said study author and sleep specialist Esra Tasali.

“Some people claim they can tolerate the cognitive effects of routine sleep deprivation,” said co-author Eve Van Cauter, PhD, the Frederick H. Rawson Professor of Medicine and director of the sleep, metabolism and health center at the University of Chicago. “In this small but thorough study, however, we found that seven out of seven subjects had a significant change in insulin sensitivity. They are not tolerating the metabolic consequences.”

The study was one of the first to bring together sleep research experts and biologists focused on energy regulation and metabolism in adipose tissue. The impetus came from a sleep-research graduate student, Josiane Broussard, PhD ’10, lead author of the study and now a Society in Science-Branco Weiss fellow at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She wanted to combine her interest in sleep and metabolism with research at the molecular level.

So she pulled together a team for this project that included the two sleep researchers, Tasali and Van Cauter, plus two specialists from the University of Chicago Kovler Diabetes Center, David Ehrmann, MD, and Brady, who studies how insulin regulates energy storage in fat and liver cells.

They focused on fat cells because of their direct links to metabolic disruption and weight gain. These cells store energy for the body, are exquisitely sensitive to insulin and help regulate appetite.

Witnessing the direct effect of sleep deprivation on a peripheral tissue such as fat at the cellular level “was an eye-opener,” Broussard said. It helps cement the link between sleep and diabetes and “suggests that we could use sleep like diet and exercise to prevent or treat this common disease.”

Brady said the study opens up many new questions.

“What signals from sleep loss affect the fat cell? What effect does dysfunctional fat have at the whole-body level?” Brady wondered. “And if we can deprive healthy people of sleep and make them worse, can we take sick people, such as those with the common combination of sleep apnea, obesity and diabetes, improve their sleep and make them better? That’s the missing link in the sleep-obesity-diabetes connection.”

This study is “a valuable contribution to the understanding of the causal pathways by which reduced sleep duration may directly contribute to diabetes and obesity,” according to an editorial in the journal by Francesco Cappuccio, MD, DSc, and Michelle Miller, PhD, of the University of Warwick, in Coventry, United Kingdom. “These results point to a much wider influence of sleep on bodily functions, including metabolism, adipose tissue, cardiovascular function, and possibly more.”

October 29, 2012
Computer Use + Exercise = Reduced Memory Loss
A study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings found that combining computer time with moderate exercise reduces your risk of memory loss compared with either activity alone.

Researchers interviewed over 900 70 – 93 year olds after they completed a questionnaire about how often they exercised and used a computer.

Just to clarify, “moderate exercise” included activities like:
- brisk walking
- doubles tennis
- yoga
- weightlifting.
Mentally stimulating activities, on the other hand, included:
- reading
- social interaction
- using a computer
So why did researchers single out computers?

Because so many people in this study used one on a regular basis.

“The aging of baby boomers is projected to lead to dramatic increases in the prevalence of dementia,” lead researcher Dr. Yonas E. Geda said. “As frequent computer use has becoming increasingly common among all age groups, it is important to examine how it relates to aging and dementia. Our study further adds to this discussion.”

Researchers found a combination of mental and physical stimulation reduced risk for mild cognitive impairment, a condition somewhere between age-related memory loss and early dementia.

More specifically, they found:
- For participants who neither exercised nor used a computer…
  - 20.1% had normal cognitive function
  - 37.6% showed signs of mild cognitive impairment.
- For participants who exercised andused a computer…
  - 36% had normal cognitive function
  - 18.3% showed signs of mild cognitive impairment.
In other words, the synergistic effects of exercise and mental stimulation best protected these participants against cognitive decline.

If you’ve read any of my books, especially The Most Effective Ways to Live Longer you know how much I value exercise and learning as critical tools to age better.

Simply put, people who constantly challenge their minds and bodies live longer and more happily than complacent, sedentary people.

After all, you probably saw the recent study in The Journal of the American Medical Association that showed people who sit more often have shorter life spans.

Evolution designed us to use our bodies for physical activity and our minds for learning, and those demands don’t diminish as we age.

In fact, a study in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise concluded that “no segment of the population…can benefit more from exercise than the elderly.”

Those benefits go beyond physical health: a study in that same journal showed that moderate- and high-intensity resistance exercise programs both benefitted cognitive functioning.

In other words, exercise can boost your mental power. And when your mind remains active and alert, you’re more likely to exercise than if you’re in a mental fog or TV-induced trance.

No matter what your age, I want to propose two challenges to prevent memory loss and keep your mind and body in prime condition:
1. Develop and maintain a vigorous exercise program. Brisk walking is good, but I want you to step it up a few notches. Try a new exercise class or sport, for instance, to boost your physical and mental skills. I never get tired of talking about my favorite exercise, burst training, which you can do in your own home and requires just minutes a day. You can devote all that time you save to learning a new language or rereading your favorite novel.
2. Keep your mind active by always engaging in new activities. It doesn’t need to be anything rigorous: mental stimulation might include reading a new author or seeing a film outside your favorite genre. And as this study showed, online learning provides another way to keep your brain stimulated. Join forums about your favorite topics, for instance, or learn a new program.
Harvard University made a list of seven activities you can do to keep your brain healthy and active at any age.

Their number-one strategy is the same as mine: keep learning.
August 13, 2012
Skipping Sleep Can Lead to Diabetes

A study in the journal Science Translational Medicine found that not getting enough sleep, or getting poor-quality sleep, can make you fat and eventually lead to diabetes.

Unlike past epidemiological studies, this one looked at people sequestered in a lab over a six-week period. Doing this allowed researchers to mimic third-shift work, jet lag, and other conditions that prevent a quality, full night’s sleep.

In other words, by keeping these 21 brave participants tightly confined, researchers could control how many hours of sleep they got, when they slept, as well as other factors like diet and exercise. It wasn’t like they could slip off for a nap or anything.

At the beginning of this six-week study, researchers allowed participants about 10 hours of sleep every night.

Nice, right? Sign me up!

But not so fast. Researchers eventually cut back participants’ sleep to less than six hours over a 24-hour period.

Even more challenging, they rotated these six hours over different times of day and night to disrupt circadian rhythm, much like a hospital worker or someone flying to a different time zone might get inconsistent sleep.

After suffering weeks of aberrant sleep patterns, researchers concluded the study by allowing participants plenty of recovery sleep.

Regardless, these sleep-deprived people showed higher blood sugar levels, which can lead to obesity and diabetes. Even though they recovered, those weeks of not getting quality, consistent rest took its course.

“The evidence is clear that getting enough sleep is important for health,” said lead author Dr. Orfeu M. Buxton, “and that sleep should be at night for best effect.”

I know how easy it is to say this and yet how few people get seven to nine hours of high-quality, consistent sleep every night.

More likely, you’re staying up late to meet deadlines, awakening at 3 a.m. with the next day’s business on your mind, or tossing for hours and hopelessly glancing at your alarm clock.

To change those patterns, you need to prepare for sleep. About an hour before bed, shut down electronics and other stimulation, and unwind with a cup of tea and maybe a hot bath.

Sleep is actually one of the seven key principles for living longer and living better covered in my DVD 7 Pillars of Longevity »

Developing better sleeping patterns might require a natural sleep aid. One of my favorites is melatonin, a hormone your brain’s pineal gland produces to regulate sleep, circadian rhythm, and your body’s internal clock.

Especially as you get older, your brain makes less melatonin. If you occasionally suffer from jet lag, have aberrant sleeping patterns, or just can’t get a good night’s rest, melatonin might be your ticket.

A meta-analysis in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews found melatonin safe and remarkably effective to reduce or eliminate jet lag.

And a study in the Journal of Sleep Research found that melatonin could help night-shift workers sleep better during the day.

My favorite melatonin supplement comes from Designs for Health.

This high-quality melatonin has vitamin B6 to aid the conversion process, contains no cheap fillers or binders to inhibit efficacy, and comes from one of the best, most ethical supplement companies in the world.

Best of all I think it is only $11 for a 60 day supply.

Nothing is more important than a good night’s sleep, so take the very best melatonin to help you get there.

July 23, 2012
Slowing Down to Eat Reduces Your Diabetes Risk
If you want to reduce your risk for diabetes, slow down.

That’s what a new study presented at the joint International Congress of Endocrinology and European Congress of Endocrinology concluded.

People who mindlessly devoured their food in this study were two and a half times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes compared with those who slowly savored what they ate.

Researchers here compared 234 people recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes with 468 people without diabetes. Besides taking body measurements, they asked participants to complete a questionnaire about diabetes risk factors. Among those questions included how quickly they ate compared with their dining companions.

Other than increased diabetes risk, people who ate faster had a higher body mass index (BMI).

Are you seeing a pattern here?

I’m willing to wager too the speed eaters weren’t eating wild salmon and broccoli. More likely, they were devouring In-N-Out burgers and milkshakes.

Diabetes studies come out all the time. This one proves significant because it was the first to show how quickly you eat can determine whether you’ll develop this chronic – and in my opinion, completely reversible – disease.

Experts often look for oversimplified culprits for diabetes, including higher consumption of high-fructose corn syrup HFCS), lack of exercise, and the ubiquitous fat-salt-sugar combo that makes up most of the processed and fast food people eat.

And while these things certainly play a role, scientists often overlook that psychological factors also significantly contribute to diabetes.

We’re a fast-paced, multitasking society that hardly seems aware what we’re shoveling down our mouths as we fight rush-hour traffic while taking a cell phone call from our irate boss.

That’s why this study proves important. It provides an often-neglected component to prevent diabetes: slow down.

I get it: saying it is easier than doing it, especially in these tough economic times where you might be struggling to stay afloat and stopping everything else for 30 minutes to savor your food just doesn’t seem possible.

But it’s worth it, for peace of mind and – as we’re seeing more and more – your health. I want to conclude with seven strategies to help you put the brakes on your eating pace:
1. Eat with slow people. You know those people who linger over their meal and enjoy every bite? Opt to dine with them rather than your friend who pounds cheeseburgers like a keg party at a fraternity house.
2. Put your fork down between bites. Remind yourself this isn’t one of those Coney Island hot dog eating contests and shoveling down your food will only give you indigestion.
3. Stop the dashboard dining. You know that cramming down an Egg McMuffin while sitting in rush hour traffic is hardly the best way to start your day. Whenever possible, eat sitting down (but not behind the wheel!), preferably at your kitchen table. My friend JJ Virgin has more great information about slowing down.
4. Chew thoroughly. A new study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that people who chew more eat less food and absorb more nutrients. Sounds like a win-win to me.
5. Be mindful while you’re eating. Put away your iPhone and other distractions. And establish a no-texting rule at the dinner table. Be present and listen to what others say. Or if you’re eating alone, focus on food rather than the TV.
6. Pause before you eat. If you’re religious, you could say a short prayer before you dive into your food. And if you’re not, simply taking a moment to breathe and offer thanks can calm your mind and digestive system.
7. Visit a gourmet multi-course restaurant. Ever visited one of those prix fixe restaurants where you linger for hours enjoying course after course? That’s a great way to learn how to slow down and savor food.
July 9, 2012
Ancient Ayurvedic Secret for Boosting Immunity

A new study in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry found that curcumin could increase levels of an immune-boosting protein that prevents infection.

Researchers here looked at the ability of curcumin and omega-3 fatty acids to increase the cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, or CAMP, gene. CAMP helps your immune system fight off bacteria, viruses, and fungi. For instance, it protects against the bacteria that triggers tuberculosis.

Now, researchers found no increase in CAMP levels with omega-3 fatty acids. (Which shouldn’t deter you from taking fish oil, since it’s good for about a million other things.)

Curcumin was more impressive: it allowed CAMP levels to nearly triple in this study.

We knew that vitamin D boosted CAMP levels, but this study was the first to show curcumin could also boost CAMP.

“Curcumin, as part of turmeric, is generally consumed in the diet at fairly low levels,” researchers said. “However, it’s possible that sustained consumption over time may be healthy and help protect against infection, especially in the stomach and intestinal tract.”

If you’ve read my book The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth you know I’m a huge fan of turmeric, a pungent orange-yellow spice that’s used in curries and other Indian, South Asian, and Middle Eastern cuisines.

Ayurvedic (Indian) medicine, in fact, treats this spice with absolute reverence and often incorporates it for anti-inflammatory and other medicinal purposes. Chronic inflammation, also known as the silent killer, contributes to nearly every disease, from cancer to diabetes to heart disease.

The anti-inflammatory and other benefits here come from curcumin, the active compound in turmeric. This potent antioxidant can neutralize damaging free radicals and also stop them from occurring in the first place.

Curcumin’s antioxidant abilities protect your colon, heart, liver, and other organs. Just one example: curcumin induces glutathione S-transferase, an enzyme that helps your liver detoxify.

Studies also show curcumin helps fight numerous cancers and cognitive decline. A study in the journal CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics showed curcumin could even reduce your risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

Now, here’s the deal. I want you to sprinkle turmeric liberally to spice up your foods and receive its numerous health benefits. I love turmeric on eggs, for instance, and green vegetables like spinach. And, of course, enjoy this spice in your favorite Indian dish.

But to get therapeutic doses of curcumin, the active, anti-inflammatory antioxidant in turmeric, you need a highly absorbable supplement. That’s because turmeric powder contains a small amount of curcumin, while a supplement can be standardized up to 95% curcumin.

Curcumin works synergistically with other anti-inflammatory compounds. One formula I really like is Inflammatone from Designs for Health »

This “natural” Vioxx combines a proteolytic enzyme mix with turmeric (standardized to contain 95% curcumin), boswellia, ginger, quercetin, rutin, rosemary, as well as the anti-aging compound resveratrol.

Together these nutrients provide a powerful antioxidant, anti-inflammatory punch.

June 26, 2012
5 Tips for Kicking The Junk Food Habit
A study in the International Journal of Obesity found that sugary, fatty foods create similar reactions (including the inevitable crash) to drugs.

Similar to drug addicts, researchers found bingers seek to recreate this destructive food euphoria to beat depression. Not surprisingly, a vicious cycle ensues.

“Data shows that obesity is associated with increased risk of developing depression, but we have very little understanding of the neural mechanisms and brain reward patterns that link the two,” researchers said. “We are demonstrating for the first time that the chronic consumption of palatable, high-fat diets has pro-depressive effects.”

Researchers fed mice different kinds of food and monitored how those foods affected behavior.

They also determined the relationship between rewarding mice with food and the behavior and emotions these foods evoked. Later, researchers looked at the mice’s brains to see how they changed.

The gorging mice’s brains showed increased anxiety, stress, and depression. In other words, these eating binges physically changed their brain structure.

Other studies show the same thing. One in the journal Nature Neuroscience found lab rats gravitated to high-fat foods and became dependent on getting their “fat fix” much like drug users need their daily fix.

Dopamine played a key role in getting those fixes. I’ve written before about this brain molecule, which controls pleasure and rewards certain kinds of behavior. Dopamine plays a powerful role in overeating.

But here’s the keeper: the anticipation of eating fatty foods, rather than eating the food itself, releases this powerful hormone.

Nothing wrong with anticipation: it helped us evolve as a species, after all. But problems arise when you associate pleasure with the wrong stimuli or the system malfunctions, as it did in these mice’s brains after eating the fatty foods.

When your reward circuitry becomes hijacked, your “enough!” switch becomes blunted, and addiction often results.

Ultimately, that chocolate chip cookie (or whatever your food addiction might be) fails to satisfy. But oddly enough, you repeatedly gravitate to it again because you anticipate it will satisfy.

When you return, two things happen. You strengthen the association between cue (chocolate chip cookie) and reward (that dopamine blast). And the cue itself (the thought or sight of a cookie) triggers dopamine circuits, where after you have little control over your behavior.

Dopamine is what fuels your drive to get a chocolate chip cookie when it feels like nothing else will satisfy you, and when you certainly know you don’t need or even want it.

Pair that cookie with a powerful emotional stimuli—say, wonderful memories of your grandmother baking gooey chocolate chip cookies — and those powerful associations release so much dopamine that your reward circuits become hijacked.

Next time you notice a powerful craving for something sweet, stop and ask yourself whether the anticipation of eating something is more rewarding than actually eating it.

I also want to provide five strategies to gain control over hormones like dopamine so you don’t subsequently spiral into overeating and depression:
1. Make lateral shifts. Telling yourself you can’t have something only makes you want it more. Instead of deprivation, make what my friend JJ Virgin calls a lateral shift. Instead of cookies, for instance, have apple slices with almond butter. You’ll get a satisfying crunch and sweetness without the sugar.
2. Find non-food rewards. Isn’t it funny how we can always find a reason to celebrate with food? Instead, give yourself a non-food reward, such as a massage or long walk with your dog.
3. Distract yourself and the temptation will pass. Instead of succumbing to the chocolate chip cookies, get lost in a good book or call an old friend. Other strategies include brushing your teeth and drinking a glass of water. I can almost guarantee you’ll forget about your craving.
4. Keep the enemy out of your house. Don’t set yourself up for disaster. Even if you’ve been good all day, all bets are off around 11 p.m. when you’re exhausted and suddenly remember those freshly baked cookies in the fridge. Don’t let them into your house and you’ll be far less likely to give in.
5. Get enough sleep. A study in The Journal of Neuroscience found that your brain compensates for lack of sleep by increasing dopamine. Too little sleep also knocks your fat-burning hormones out of whack. Couple that with sleep-deprived lack of judgment, and you’ve got a surefire strategy to overeat. Aim for seven to nine hours of high-quality sleep every night to trigger fat burning, balance dopamine levels, and reduce your urge to overeat.
If you want more in-depth information on the topic of food addiction then you should know I’ve dedicated an entire 12 page chapter to it in my new weight loss program Unleash Your Thin »
June 25, 2012